Monthly Archives: August 2012

I love, love, LOVE this week’s challenge topic! It allows me to share a bit of my “backstory,” a 21st century scratch on the wall about my urban roots.

A brief word re: the pictures below: NONE of them are my own. I discovered a wonderful photographer via Flickr, whose many shots so perfectly captured the urban environment, I had difficulty selecting the “best” ones!

Let’s begin!

I grew up in Everett, a working-class, blue-collar city adjacent to Boston. Our street, Fremont Ave, was situated near the top of Lawrence St., in a section known as Hospital Hill. From any backporch on the odd-numbered side of the street, you could see the entire Boston Skyline, the Shipyards, and Logan Airport. On exceptionally clear days, a tiny corner of Revere Beach was even visible!

Fremont Avenue is comprised of two-family homes. For 17 years my family rented in two different flats on this street. The yellow house in the photo below shows the second apartment we called home; we lived on the second floor. If you look between the houses, you’ll notice a bit of the urban skyline through the haze. 🙂

Now let me zoom out, so you get a feel for the densely settled urban area that is Metropolitan Boston North:

Mouse over the center of the above picture….When you see the word Whidden, you’re above my old house! 🙂

Like this:

On Monday mornning, August 27, 2012, Tropical Storm Isaac passed over Key West, enroute to the Gulf of Mexico and classification as a hurricane. During this journey, a rainband detached from her easternmost edge, and stayed for hours over Vero Beach, dumping a foot of rain.

What happened next threw me for a loop:

Twilight descended at 10am and deepened along with thunder unlike anything I’d EVER heard ➡ sonorous and rumbling, a persistant drone beneath gusty winds and rain that fell like sheets along a diagonal line. If this sounds intense and dramatic it’s meant to…it was a scary, over-the-top kind of storm. We’d been under a tornado watch since the previous late evening, which the Weather Service upgraded to “warning” between 9-11am…standard procedure during tropical storms. Typically nothing happens…typically the sky doesn’t turn green!

Unlike northern construction, southern homes are built without cellars–(we’re too close to aquifers here,) so I decided my walk-in closet was the safest place to shelter. I grabbed Clarisse and hid, relieved I could still hear the local weather alerts from inside.

My blood ran cold when I heard this:

Within minutes, they updated the tornado’s location….my mother’s manufactured home park!!! More than 30 houses had been demolished, and I could NOT reach her by telephone!

The phone and power lines were down, so I was unable to connect despite repeatedly dialing. An hour ticked by, and part of the next…I kept thinking surely she’ll call (somehow) to say she’s ok! Why isn’t she using her cell phone?! I admit I was getting increasingly panicked. It’s atypical for her to turn on her mobile, but I called it anyway..worst case scenario, I’d at least leave a message.

She answered!!!! 🙂 I sobbed hysterically, “I thought you were DEAD!!! For over an hour!! I thought you were dead!!”

She had been at the Doctor’s and had NO idea anything was amiss, until arriving at her next stop (the bank) where everyone buzzed about the tornado. Then SHE panicked, afraid her house might lie among the wreckage.

It did not!!!

“I survived the Vero Beach Tornado of 2012”

In the annals of tornado history, ours will be listed as an F0-1, meaning windforce was somewhere around 85-100 mph. It wasn’t on the ground for very long, either: in less than 2 minutes it traveled 1.46 miles, damaged 102 structures, including 30 on my mother’s street.

Given the extent of the damage, I’m amazed NOBODY was injured, or worse….but I’m especially RELIEVED the woman affectionately known to our family as “The Old One” is alive and well!!! Phew!!!

Considered one of the most diverse estuaries in North America, the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge is home to over 3,000 different plant and animal species, like the wild boars 😯 we saw grazing at the boat ramp turn-off:

But we were there for other reasons, so drove off to find the kayaks:.

We were about to see the light! 🙂

Our eco-guide explained what lay ahead ❗

From July through October, the lagoon comes alive at night with bioluminescence, a unique microbial phenomenon found en masse in only 4 places on earth! Tiny marine plankton known as dinoflagellates emit a bluish-green light when disturbed. Although these algae are invisible to the naked eye, when agitated in high concentrations they emit light so strong you could read a book! A quick glance at the chart below explains the process:

Dinoflagellate species that rely on photosynthesis for food have luciferin (similar to chlorophyll) in their small bodies.

Simply stated, anything that brushes against, or snaps a plankton’s outer membrance triggers the light….much like snapping a glow stick, which ironically we wore for nighttime illumination on the VERY dark waters! 😉

After receiving paddles and safety instructions, we launched, single file, into a night that suited our purpose perfectly. 🙂 The sky was clear and sparkled with stars but wasn’t overly bright ➡ dinoflagellates are best observed 5 days before or after a new moon.

Access to the the Bio Bay is via a narrow “no wake” channel lined with banks of mangroves overgrown, and cypress branches joined aloft as if in handshake. Paddling through this vestige of Old Florida, I almost forgot the Space Shuttle launch pads and massive Vehicle Assembly buildings perched at the southern end of Mosquito Lagoon. When frontiers collide, it’s disconcerting!

And suddenly our guides were blowing whistles, gathering us round for one last caveat about flying fish and batting them away….but oh my goodness!!! Who could listen when the water below was glowing like neon and everyone gasped in awe?!

That’s when it happened ➡ with machine-gun fire syncopation, mullet exploded around our 2 boats! Maggie and I were in a double kayak, her fiancé nearby in a single when we heard him shout, “One’s in the boat!” 🙂 What do we do?”

Seamus with Kayak Paddle, aka the Fish Bat! 😉

We made our way closer to steady his kayak and help grab the desperate, flopping fish! 🙂 A funny scene, made more absurd when we realized the lagoon floor was only 2ft below and we’d been trying so hard NOT to capsize! hahahahaha!!

All’s well that end’s well, though! The fish survived the adventure and so did we! Driving home, Maggie said, “I think that’s the best thing we ever did!”

I started this plant two winters ago from stem tip cuttings received at a yard sale. Because Palms have rope-like roots extending through the ground at shallow depths, I couldn’t dig deep holes for my new cuttings; instead, I propped them along the base of the trunk, anchored them with 3″ of moistened Miracle Gro Cactus/Palm Potting Soil, and pressed the concoction HARD! against the tree-trunk 😛

Let the merge begin!

Is this what they mean by stuck in rut?

The picture above illustrates Pothos different types of roots. On the right-hand side of the dark green stem are 4 adventitious roots through which the plant obtains nutrition and water. Cylindrical aerial roots grow from nodes on the main stem and merge with the host tree, allowing the plant to trail or climb. If an aerial root reaches the ground during rainy season, it will oftentimes root, form another stem and repeat the life cycle! 🙂

From root to stem and back again!

If allowed to climb, Epipremnum Aureum changes shape as it gains height. Upper leaves are more feathered than their heart-shaped, lower counterparts; they also measure wider and longer than ones near the ground.

Like this:

Pantala Flavescens is the most widely distributed dragonfly on the planet; they live and breed everywhere except Europe where winds out of Africa create a barrier to their travels. Commonly known as Globe Skimmers or Wandering Gliders, they fly almost continuously, only stopping briefly to lay eggs or grab a quick meal….except for this one who slept away the ENTIRE afternoon in the Penthouse Suite at the Canna Hotel:

The Himalayas will still be there…….after my nap! 😉

I let the little bugger be, but kept an eye on him while I went about my business. I wasn’t particularly quiet, either: the door banged shut a few times from the wind and I was repotting peace lilies, dropping tools etc…not a hint of movement from 1:45pm when I took the picture until just after 430pm when I watched him lift off and zigzag away!

Bye-Bye!!! Have a nice flight! 🙂

After dinner, I got another unexpected surprise:

First open Brassia of the season, Aug 17, 2012

There are four other blooms on this spike that should open over the next week or so. 🙂 It’s easy to see why these are called Spider Orchids, yeah?

Like this:

Today’s submission dates back to June 2008, when a freak storm ripped through our former neighborhood with devastating results:

A tree through the window!!?!! SO wrong!! 🙄

This photo was taken on the clear and beautiful morning after the previous night’s 10pm chaos!

See the ornamental porch peeking out beneath the tree? Technically it wasn’t designed for “hanging out” but you can imagine how a spot slightly diagonal to her bedroom window appealed to Maggie and her teenage friends ➡ in the warm months, she’d climb over the gap (and railing) with deckchairs/cds/magazines and whoever happened to be visiting: instant summer fun. 🙂 I realize most parents would’ve put the kabosh on such things, but I LOVED hearing kid sounds trickle down whenever I’d sit on the “real” porch, below…..but I digress!

When I tell you how FAST this storm roared through, believe me!!! Every tree on the street went from 0 to 60 in an instant and the wind was so LOUD! I ran into Mag’s room yelling “Get the chairs!! they’ll launch like missiles” HA! Wrong missiles to worry about!

Surveying the damage! Immediately after the storm, June 2008

The storm we experienced is known as a microburst, a column of sinking air that lasts only a few seconds but produces dangerous winds at the surface. They often do tornado-like damage at ground level and can knock planes from the sky at upper elevations.

Afterwards, what scared us most was the sequence of events. We barely struggled the porch furniture through the window (and backed away!!) before the tree sailed 4ft into the room….still attached to what you see outside!!!!!